The Schoolmaster - Let's Try Wrapping Up This Chapter!

Father James Moriarty gave us some great information about his grandfather, Schoolmaster James Moriarty, and his family. I am not surprised that education was important to this branch of my family - we have teachers, nurses, business people. My mother - my father as well but we are talking about my mother's family - always wanted us all to have the opportunity to go to college. I was fortunate to receive some scholarships and obtain loans to go to Boston College Nursing School, but I know it was a struggle for my folks to pay for six kids. I worked every weekend and every vacation to help pay for books, fees uniforms, etc. 

And I love that the Moriartys were involved in the fight for Irish freedom! I feel a connection with the nurses and hope that I would have had their courage to smuggle guns and ammunition into Ireland. 

Before we leave the Schoolmaster's family, let's just take a look at some of the online information I found.


Below are the 1901 Irish Census returns for Ballycullane. Remember Theo Stoakley's letter? This has even more information. The townland is in County Kerry - Parliamentary Division of West Kerry - Poor Law Union of Dingle - District Electoral Division of Lack - Constabulary District of Dingle - Sub-district Auniscaul - Townland of Ballycullane - Barony of Corkaguiny - Parish of Balllinvoher.

Thomas Bray is the Royal Irish Constabulary officer taking the census. Normally, a member of the RIC would not be stationed in his home county - so I presume Thomas Bray is not from Kerry.

The census does not give us the size of the townland, but there are people living in 7 of the 8 dwelling houses. All the residents of the townland are Roman Catholics. House #2 has 11 people living in it  - 4 males and 7 females. 

Next we have the listing of the schoolmaster's family who are in house #2.

James Moriarty, who is 41, and his wife Ellie, 35, have 2 sons and 5 daughters – all under 12 years old. James is listed as a National Teacher while Ellie is a shopkeeper. The children are all in school except Thomas Cornelius who is only one – he is Reverend Moriarty’s father. 

The other James Moriarty is the 14 year old nephew – this is our Jim Moriarty – Ma’s brother!! 

Mary Farrell is an 18 year old servant. 

And as you would expect for a family living on the Dingle peninsula, they all speak Irish and English although nothing is listed for the children 6 and under. The family and the servant all read and write as you would also expect from a teacher’s family. 

Both the constable and the schoolmaster signed the bottom of the return.

The next form shows the outbuildings in the townland - any kind of building on the property except no privies/outhouses, no buildings used for horticulture - like a greenhouse, no buildings used for pleasure - like a tea house or a summer house. 

The form does not say whether the buildings are in use. James Morairty has a stable. The schoolmaster and the doctor were the most important persons in a town after the Catholic priest. We just read that James Moriarty had a servant! Most likely he had at least one horse.

Three of the schoolmaster's neighbor have pigs - the family in house #1 has 2 piggeries. I wonder if he raises and sells these pigs? Have you ever been by a pig farm? I wonder if there was an odor in that area? These three families also have cow houses.  

This next form is very interesting and tells us a lot about the townland. 

Column one lists the house or building. Column 2 tells us if the house is being built or if the house is already built. There is no building going on in Ballycullane - all are complete. I'd like to know how old these buildings are - when were they built? When I looked at Griffith's Valuation for Ballycullane, I saw that Ballycullane is adjacent to Inch. Most of the houses are close to or on the Tralee to Dingle road. Remember when Dad, Beth, and I visited the Inch Post Office, the schoolmaster's house? It was right there on the main drag. 

Column 3 tells us that there are 6 private dwellings and a shop in the townland. That vacant buildings turns out to be a chapel. 

We saw already that all the buildings are inhabited except for the chapel. We have also seen how many outbuildings each house has - this information is also in Columns 4 and 5.

And according to columns 6 and 7, the buildings are pretty substantial - all made of stone, concrete, or brick - although I don't know if many houses would be made of brick - you see that more in the north. Two houses have slate roofs - this would have been too expensive for most Irish families - our shop has a slate roof. The other houses have thatch.

There are only two one room cabins. Four houses have between 2 and 4 rooms. And of course the shop has 7 to 9 rooms.

The figures in column 9 seem a little odd - it is a listing of all the windows in the front of the house. The shop seems to have too many windows! 12 in the front of the house! 

Here is a picture of the Inch Post Office from 1982. It is a large building. I wonder if the part on the left is included in the shop or if that is a separate building? I count 7 windows. Granted the building might have changed, but it makes me wish I had paid more attention to it. Now I would like to go back and take a good look at the house, the school/community center, the church, the neighborhood.

To find out what class the building is, you add together the numbers in columns 6 through 9. Our shop is the only first class building in the townland. Only fitting for a schoolmaster I suppose! I wonder when it was built and who lived there before the schoolmaster?

Column 12 tells us that only one family lives in each house. Eleven people live in the schoolmaster's 9 rooms according to columns 13, 14, and 15. The census was taken on April 8, 1901.

Thomas Fitzgerald in house #1 owns the land, and I suppose that means he owns the house where the schoolmaster lives. Father Moriarty said that James Moriarty married the girl next door, Bridget Fitzgerald - is this Thomas Fitzgerald her father? You know that I think so! He is the one who has two piggeries. And he also owns building #7 - that 4th class "house" where Edward Kenney is living with three others in one room with no windows in front. So I would presume that Thomas Fitzgerald is fairly well off.

I was excited to find a marriage for James Moriarty of Ballinagowan to Ellen Fitzgerald of Ballycullane on www.irishgenealogy.ie until I read that James' father was Daniel Moriarty - we know that the Schoolmaster's father was Michael Moriarty. Ellen's father is Thomas Fitzgerald so that would fit. The marriage took place on 5 February 1888 in the Annascaul Catholic Church. No names of mothers or priest were given. The witnesses were Johanna O'Connell and James O'Brien. So what do you think?  Copies of the original Kerry records are not available yet on this website - the original might give us a little more information than the transcribed.

I also found a baptismal record for Michael Moriarty whose parents were James Moriarty and Ellen Fitzgerald. No residence, priest, or witnesses were given. The baptism was on 21 March 1890 - this is in line with the above marriage and synchs with the 1901 census which lists Michael as 12. It is Entry 47 in the Annascaul Roam Catholic book.

The other baptisms from this website are:

1891 - 22 May - Mary Moriarty - Margaret Fitzgerald is the only sponsor listed - this is probably the mother's sister.

I know that Ma's father drowned about October 1893 - so young Jim Moriarty would be arriving in Ballycullane between these two births. 

1894 - 7 June - Deborah Moriarty of Inch - parents James Moriarty and Helen - sponsors are Cornelius Moriarty and Johanna Fitzgerald. Could this be the schoolmaster's brother?

1896 - 14 October - Helen Moriarty - sponsors are James Moriarty and Mary Foley. I wonder who this other James Moriarty is? 

1898 - 17 October - Johanna Frances Moriarty - sponsors are Catherine Sullivan and Eugene Sullivan.

1899 - 31 December - Thomas Cornelius Moriarty - Mary Lenihan and John Lenihan

So we are missing the baptism for Catherine Moriarty who was 7 in the 1901 census - that makes her birth year about 1894. So she would probably be born just after young Jim Moriarty came to live in Ballycullane. I wonder if he was homesick for his mother and sisters? Maybe the small children helped to distract him. He probably went right to school after arriving. But more about young Jim Moriarty to come. 

So the schoolmaster and his wife  had 7 children in 1901 - that leaves another 5 to come?